Computers and other electronic entities consume electrical power provided at one or more regulated voltages. Certain electronic components are designed to modulate substantial electrical currents during the provision of regulated power to central processing units (CPUs) and other entities. Switching type power supplies are just one class that use power transistors during the controlled switching of such electrical currents during normal operation.
However, various failures can occur within such a power supply that result in the destruction of components that receive operating power there from. In just one example, the source-to-drain shorting of an “upper” field-effect transistor (FET) within a buck-type switching supply can result in the uncontrolled passing of destructively high voltages. Faults of this nature usually result in catastrophic damage to CPUs or other devices. The present teachings address the foregoing and related concerns.